Two souls
by Tintenschwert
Summary: Raphael went out to search for Soul Edge. He battles Nightmare in Ostrheinsburg and receives...a teenager? Out of pity he takes the young Siegfried with him and they travel to Raphael´s home.
1. Chapter 1

Long Journey back

Soul Calibur II based – couldn´t play the third one...only got an X-Box...and not (waaaaaay not) enough money to buy another console...dammit!

Disclaimer: Not mine. Obviously, otherwise you´d have noticed some major differences concerning some people...

Raphael woke up. His eyes snapped open as he recalled what just happened. The Azure Knight...Soul Edge. What was going on? The last thing he knew was that Nightmare had beaten him, then everything went black. He was still in that chapel Ostrheinsburg. The green forest, the white walls, the giant organ, even the massive hole in the floor... Sunlight came down through shattered windows. It looked quite peaceful. Odd. Totally odd.

Wait! Back to thought 1: Azure Knight! What did happen to him? Normally Raphael expected to be dead right now. There was no chance he could have survived this, but he was still alive. Something must have happened while he was knocked out. Raphael looked around. There! A figure huddled in the corner! Quickly Raphael grabbed his rapier which lay next to him. Who was this? Carefully Raphael took a few steps closer. What was he doing? Could this be a vicious trick by Nightmare – but why should the Azure Knight trick him? He was already defeated, that would make no sense. But no Nightmare here made no sense either, so...Raphael didn´t know what to think of all that. He was happy to have survived, but the strange feeling did not leave him. He decided to examine the situation first. Meaning looking who this was.

The figure – it was a man – looked like he was sleeping. No muscle moved, Raphael had a hard time detecting that the man was still breathing. One of Nightmare´s victims? Perhaps..but it made no sense, like everything here did. Raphael crept closer until he stood directly in front of the figure. The stranger didn´t seem to acknowledge his presence here, but his eyes were wide open. He was just looking into nowhere.He looked deepy frightened. Raphael waved his hand quickly before the stranger´s face. Then the man looked up at him. It was Nightmare?...Had been Nightmare?Raphael was stunned. If this was Nightmare, all the stories the French heard about him were truly false. He heard of a cruel and merciless robber, who murdered everyone he saw, who sold his soul to the Devil himself, who should be a tall man with muscles over muscles, looking like one of the ancient gods. Raphael had expected nearly everything beneath that helmet. But not a teenager. He had a mane of long blond hair, blue eyes and a scar in his face. He looked at Raphael as if the French noblemen was the first human he ever saw. No trace of the pure evil being he was once was could be seen. He looked pitiful. The young man tried to make himself even more smaller, pulled his knees up to his chest and simply looked terrified at Raphael. Raphael spoke: "Who are you? What are you doing here?" The stranger opened his mouth hesitantly, but decided otherwise quickly and closed it with no sound emitting. He buried his head on his folded arms and pretended he was all alone here.

Raphael hated to be ignored, but the young man looked like he saw in the deepest pits of hell. "He was clearly afraid of me", thought Raphael. "I wonder what has happened here. And to where the Azure Knight went with Soul Edge." It seemed to him, that only the stranger could help him, so Raphael went on questioning. "Who are you? Can you tell me what happened here? Can you help me?" Raphael spoke with a soft voice, the least he could use was an even more scared man here. "Go away." was his only answer." I don´t think I will, unless you answer my questions." The man raised his head and looked directly into Raphael´s eyes. "I´m a demon of hell and lingering here will kill you. Leave, before it´s too late. If the sword is what you seek, it is no longer, so don´t bother and go home." "So you do know about Soul Edge...what do you mean?" But the young man ignored him and Raphael was close to lose his temper. He got here to find Soul Edge, to create a better world for his Amy and all what was left was a teen who refused to answer him."Look," he said barely covering his anger, "could you tell me at least where Nightmare is? I´m going to track him down and take the sword form him if I must."

That seemed to have an effect on the teen, although not a pleasent one.  
"Don´t mention his name, don´t mention him, don´t call the Devil by his name or he will come...don´t speak of him..."

The teen raised his hands and pressed them against his ears, he shut his eyes, tried to shut the world out while he was still talking, "Be still! Don´t say it... leave!"  
His voice went higher, he began to shake and curled himself in a ball. "Leave, just leave..." he begged.

"Not unless you tell me what has happened!", Raphael demanded.

He grabbed the teen´s arm „Tell me!" this had startled the teen. "You...," he began, "you fought with him, he defeated you. then there was fire and shadows everywhere and a ..thing that was aflame came. They fought, Nightmare won easily, the thing exploded, there was more fire and a sword fell ..out of him. Nightmare grabbed it, laughed ... then you moved, managed to stab him into his side, he wanted to kill you, then he lost control, the sword was stabbed...there was light everywhere, then everything went black, and then I was here and you woke up. That´s all."

Raphael knelt until his face was on the same level as the teen´s. "And who are you?" he asked. "Siegfried."

That was the only word the teen said to him, then he fell silent again and shut the world out. So this was the man behind the mask of the Azure Knight. Raphael had heard stories that the sword drove you mad, posessed you, but he never belived. If he did, he certainly hadn´t been so dumb and searched for this thing. But it seemed that there was a true core to those stories. Raphael looked at the teen. Soemthing overcome him..Concern. He couldn´t just leave the teen here. This place was notorious for Soul Edge, people would come here to search it and find Siegfried if he stayed here. And he couldn´t just leave him behind, that was not right. Innerly, Raphael cursed his soft spot for children. First Amy and then this teen. He stood up and offered his hand to Siegfried. "Coming?" he asked. Siegfried watched the hand in amazement. Obviously he wasn´t used to friendly people. "Why?" he asked. „Because, " Raphael started, "I´m an adult and you´re barely more than a kid. Don´t say otherwise, I mean how old are you...18 at top of guessing scale? Besides I traveled through whole Europe and my daughter would kill me if I came home without at least something. And I can´t just leave you here at this place, it could ...crumble anytime and you would be buried and then I would be responsible for that, and, too bad , I got a concious and no one can say that I leave poor children at an evil castle here. So, come on already!"

Shyly Siegfried raised his own hand. Raphael grabbed it and pulled Siegfried to his feet.Once again, he was surprised. One wouldn´t notice it, but Siefried was ...not so big as you would think he would be. Nightmare was impressive, looked frightful and you simply had to fear him. But..Raphael thought...if Siegfried was inside that armour all the time, that means...Nightmare wasn´t taller than 1, 70m!!?? Boy, that guy sure had a talent for appearing bigger than he was. Way bigger. Raphael noticed another thing. Siegfried wasn´t wearing anything but a pair of trousers. He must have discarded the armor, Raphael thought. He could understand that, but it was pretty chilly up here. A thought crept in his mind. Not only he was taking a teen with him, that looked like he had experienced the worst thing that could happen to one, he even wore pretty much nothing. Really great, he was giving the village people even more to talk about. They looked at him, because of his noble fashion, his accent, his sword, his expensive horse, his attitude, he came to find a weapon and would come back with a nearly naked boy instead. Reeeeally great! But it couldn´t be helped, he had already decided. "Come, we´re going to find something to eat and something to dress for you." he said. Siegfried looked at him unbelievingly.

Comment: At least tell me it was crap . Review!!


	2. Chapter 2

Two Souls

Disclaimer: points to Chapter 1: I already said they´re not mine, see?

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Raphael trotted down the path to the little village where he left his  
horse and his luggage. They wandered in the woods, while the trees became a roof over their heads. "Stupid trees!", he muttered.

It became gloomy, dark, the forest seeming to suck in even sound. The athmosphere... was to wood-ish for him, simply. It didn´t help that this forest was near the haunted castle of a knight with a cursed sword, but, he didn´t like forests in general anyway.

Raphael sighed.

Several tries of establishing a conversation were successfully suffocated by Siegfried, who trotted silently behind him. Not only had he not said a word since they left the ruins of the castle, but he also made absolutely no noise while walking. Raphael had found himself more than once turning his head around just to see if Siegfried was still there.

"Great", he thought "I´ve developed an Orpheus complex."

He sighed silently, listened to the sounds of the woods they were passing through, when he suddenly stopped. There was something wrong. His mind had been telling him since he had began walking, but he couldn´t figure it out. Now he noticed. It was just too quiet here.

Where were all the animals? They hadn´t encountered a single bird, not to mention deer, rabbits, or anything. Nothing was here, except of the pressing silence and the forest. It seemed to become darker and darker the further they wandered. He turned around to Siegfried "Hey, boy. Is it always this quiet here?" he asked.

Raphael´s eyes widened. Siegfried stood completely still, like he was frozen there. He looked more as a statue than a human being; his eyes looking to a point far far away. His face was blank of any emotion, only the light breeze ruffling his blond mane indicated that he was more than a lifeless statue made of marble.

"Hello?" Raphales waved his hand in front of the boy. "Can you hear me? Siegfried!"  
At the harsh sound of Raphael´s voice, Siegfried snapped out of what trance he was in. "It is not safe here, we must get out. It is coming, it´s drawing nearer even as we speak.

Raphael raised an eyebrow, "Look, kid. I understand you are a bit afraid and quite on the edge, but this is just a creepy forest, there´s nothing dangerous here, except for maybe wolves or other animals."

Siegfried´s eyes were wide open, a haunted expression on his face, "You don´t understand, we HAVE to get out! NOW!"

The boy´s body dropped into a crouch, his face a dark mask; he jerked his head around as if he was looking for something or someone. Raphael stepped closer to him. Slowly he raised his hands and tried to put them assuringly on Siegfried´s shoulders, but the boy backed away and eyed him suspiciously. Holding his hands flat in front of himself

Raphael said that he was no threat to the boy. "You´re just imagining things, your mind is playing tricks on you."

He tried to sound calm, but Siegfried wasn´t listening to him, he wasn´t even looking at Raphael. He was staring at a point in the small spot of sky they could see through the treetops. His facial exression changed from uncomfortable to pure shock. He went rigid for a moment, than bolted away into the wood.

"HEY! Come back here!" Raphael shouted and started to follow Siegfried. Siegfried simply ran. He fled from a foe Raphael couldn´t detect. After two minutes Siegfried was still accelerating.

"No one in his condition should be able to run this fast and certainly not for so long!" Raphael thought.

Siegfried was fast, his fear nearly making him fly. He took narrow curves, ran in zig-zag and jumped over the roots on the ground. On more than one occassion Raphael nearly lost him, only the occasional glimpse of Siegfried´s golden hair telling him where to run, "It´s like Hell was broken loose behind him..."

Above them the sky darkened. It became grey, the clouds no longer white shades anymore...all signs pointed to a major storm brewing. Even the air started to change.  
Siegfried´s frantic flight didn´t seem to come to an end; he didn´t slow down at all. He was just running blindly from what had scared him nearly to death, but Raphael could catch up now, although several trees seemed to hit him constantly with their twigs, roots and leaves.

He stubbornly refused to give up, coming nearer nearly every step and couldn´t think of another way to stop Siefried from running but to tackle him down. Careful not to hurt the boy Raphael just threw him to the ground while he himself tripped over a treertunk and fell. The shock seemed to help Siegfried realize what he had done. Making a small whimpering noise, Siegfried curled himself in a ball and hugged his knees up to his chin. Raphael couldn´t help himself but to pity Siegfried. The poor boy...but what could make him run like that? He kneeled before the boy and put hesitantly a hand on his shoulder. Siegfried was sobbing now, too afraid to talk. Raphael´s maternal nature was taking over.

He pulled Siegfried into a comforting embrace, whispering "Shh calm down... it´ll be all alright... No one will hurt you, you understand? I won´t let that happen... shh... it´s okay..."

Through heavy sobs Siegfried quickly spoke a few words, rapidly, as if he waited any longer he would change his mind and remain silent, "The raven- the raven is coming. It´s after me... I´m so afraid... black wings, in its claws... there was darkness..."

Raphael had to think of Amy; of one night when she had a nightmare and he comforted her. She had looked as frightened as Siegfried did now... the only difference being that Siegfried was awake. It had to be a living nightmare. Raphael wanted to help the boy, to help him regain a normal life. He patted Siegfried´s hair."Calm down...it´s okay."

The sky grumbled. The storm was nearly here. Siegfried´s breathing returned to normal, so Raphael stood up and outstretched his hand to the boy. "Let´s go to the inn, okay? No need to be afraid," Raphael pointed at the sky, "Look! It´s getting dark already-"

He trailed far away in thought, "What would I give to be home now...bright sun, blue sky, warm weather, the seaside... not this stupid bunch of old trees! I got the feeling there mist be an imp or worse living inside of every tree whose only purpose in life is to mock me."

As if on clue a knot came falling down on his head.

"See! Again. I hate woods!", he said half grumbled, rubbing his head where the knot had hit. Siegfried snickered.  
"What´s so funny?" Raphael asked. Then he noticed, Siegfried had made a noise. A vocal noise. A snicker. Nearly a laugh. Wow. Siegfried smiled. And just as Amy´s smile, it made his heart warm. Nothing in the whole world could compare to a child´s laughter.

Siegfried gestured at the dark green surroundings, "There are no imps; these are the waldschrate. Treat them kind and with respect, and they will tolerate and help you; insult them, and you will wish you never set foot in here."

Rapahel eyed him suspiciously. "You still believe in fairytales and such things? That´s ok for my daughter, but aren´t you a little too old for that?"

Siegfried smiled, but with sad eyes. "When your captured in a ghost story for years...why not believe in the good side? -Besides," he added, mischeviously glaring at Raphael, "I´m not the one who looked like the forest beat him up, because he insulted the trees before."

Rapahel wanted to say something, opened his mouth, but before any sound could escape, it came into his mind that he didn´t have a counterargument- so he remained silent. He helped Siegfried to his feet and quickly ruffled the boy´s hair. "Come now. I don´t want to get caught in the rain."

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I didn´t make the waldschrate up. They´re as real as irish leprechauns or imps

Thanks go to: Water Fairy2, HellRaiserAlchemist, TheGarnetNovelist and very special thanks to Chrosis, who proofread my story. that´s so awesome of you

comments are appreciated...to possible flamers: I´ll send Nightmare after you!!!!!!!


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